Had a great night last night at the Under The Fable poetry night in Manchester’s Castle Hotel. Though wracked with nerves and real ale, I managed to perform for about 20 minutes. Longest one yet, and met with goodness throughout.
My poem ‘What I Do Not See’ is featured on http://www.thestaresnest.com today. Go read it, its great.
In other news, we have a wasps nest, so I wrote a poem.
Stung
It started at one a day
An annoyance
Gold and black
Pointless aggression
One a day is makeable
But as we slipped further
And further
Into the depths of frustrated idleness
They began pouring in
Five a day
Five an hour
Dozens an hour
Still we sat
Talking
Watching television
A wad of kitchen paper on the coffee table
Ready to pounce
I had mastered the technique
In fact
I was so capable
I would surely go down in folklore
Songs would be sung
Paintings commissioned
Chapters written
The bin began to fill up
Kitchen paper
And bodies
Viscera smeared the windows
Ensuring even in death
They ruined the view
Still we sat
As the room filled
Each step like a tightrope walk
Each day hazier
Filled with humming
Buzzing
Insatiable anger
They circle overhead
Banging and crashing
Deafening
I sit here now
As they fill my body
Crawl through my veins
Up to my brain
A black cloud
Of barely repressed rage
My breath rattles venom
Where once was life.
Stuart Buck 